Zukks quit because gays in California had just received a domestic something-or-other which qualified them for housing loans; since his religion does not condone The Gay, he told his boss he could not continue to work there.
Happily married two years ago with a precious baby son arriving a year after that, he sent out a mass email to friends requesting financial help. I was more than happy to send him money; he had put me up many a night when I was living in my car in LA.
I didn’t realize Zukks had so many friends, with the donations he was able to buy a 70’s camper and escape from LA to Oregon, where his father had recently retired.
Life in the Pacific Wonderland is pretty sweet for Zukks. He nor his wife have to work to receive welfare benefits, he alone just has to attend certain job meetings to stay qualified, like taking SCUBA classes with zero intention of going anywhere near water.
The last time we conversed telephonically Zukks threw me a new one: it was the gays’ fault for his family having ended up where they were, therefore he was the victim, a claim so ridiculous I’m embarrassed to even type it.
When Zukks recently pestered me via texts (on his obamaphone) I went off on him, reminding him I worked and was therefore not always available.
You do remember WORK, don’t you?
He texted back: Ha ha good luck if im supposed to feel guilty for getting free stuff.
I didn’t answer.
This is what welfare does to once-productive people. Welfare–or rather the condition of non-work it enables–is the most seductive and powerful of all the addictions, more powerful than heroin, nicotine, alcohol, TV and the internet combined. The longer you lie on your back in the social safety net, the more it feels like a hammock. Every working person is a potential welfare junkie. No one is immune to the lure of paid leisure and not having to deal with unpleasant people for whatever length of time they consider excessive (for me it’s 5 minutes).
Zukks still has principles, poisoned though they are. The part of his faith about God requiring work he seems to have forgotten, but when the Oregonian System announced that in order to continue receiving benefits his wife would have to begin the same employment classes, he declined. He wants Wifey to be a stay-at-home mother, a noble goal, if they could do it on their own dime and time.
Just when it seemed Zukks was going to have to take control of his life again his income tax refund arrived, and just as that money ran out the State made him eligible for benefits again. (UPDATE: More good news, Oregonians, Zukks’ wifey is indeed knocked up; the ensuing hospital care is on your tab)! You people sure are generous with your granola.
I asked Zukks a while back if he planned on living this way forever. He appears to have no plan for the morrow, and the sobering truth is, he probably could live off The System forever, no matter which political party rules (we’re so far gone that as you’re reading this, you’re already thinking of someone you know who is gaming the system).
When Zukks was working, he always did quite well, making more than me most years, and that’s sans the fake degree from the fake school where we first met. Now he’s being paid by the State to fail.
I’m the first to admit failing to live up to full potential, but I eat the shit, deal with assholes and pay the fucking bills that have to be paid, as do millions of Americans. The law can’t force someone to feel guilty (even as a motivator to do and be better) but it should force welfare rollers to acknowledge, even if it just means checking a box, that “free” means someone else is paying for it.
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